


Love Won't Die

by actualkoschei



Category: Horus Heresy - Various Authors, Warhammer 40k (Novels) - Various Authors
Genre: Dreadnought Loken, M/M, Perpetual Tarik, Perpetual!Tarik AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-03
Updated: 2015-07-03
Packaged: 2018-04-07 13:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4264752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualkoschei/pseuds/actualkoschei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a symmetry between dreams and memories, the faded ghosts of what once was.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Won't Die

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WahlBuilder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WahlBuilder/gifts), [kishiriaz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kishiriaz/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Love won't die // Любовь не умрет](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8535913) by [archeoptah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/archeoptah/pseuds/archeoptah)



There are echoes in the cold, deep black. Sometimes he almost awake, almost lucid, and he hears them. Echoes, whispers, chittering voices. He strains to catch at the noises, but there's never anything solid to them. Just blackness, and bitter aching cold. No pain. Not anymore. He almost thinks that he misses pain. It is, after all, the last thing he ever truly felt. Scorching, searing pain, half-remembered. There were hands on him, too, gentle hands, but what they felt like is even harder for him to remember than the pain. He hates to wake. The metal around him, the numbness and the quiet and the black, the sensation of being trapped, it feels like being buried alive. If he still could have, he would have panicked. But, instead, he stays still, bound down by tonnes of metal. It's better to dream, he thinks, better to sleep away the years between fights. Deep in his cold sleep, he doesn't feel the touch against the metal casing. It's a gentle touch, incongrously so. A lover's touch. Buried in the bowels of a ship, an Astartes lays his head against the Dreadnought, absently stroking at the front plating. He sighs, resting against the metal hulk. "Good fight we had." His voice is soft, and he pauses before continuing. "I wish you could have been there to see it." He pauses again, as though waiting for a response that will never come. "Throne, but it felt good." He swallows, rough and hoarse. His throat feels thick, like the start of tears, but he cried himself out centuries ago. "I miss you, Garvi." he whispers.

There's a stir, a dull ripple in the deep ocean of Loken's dreams. A face swims before his eyes, a memory, laughing grey eyes and a wide grin. For once, Garviel can feel his body. Feel his legs, tangled in blankets, and a hand stroking his hip. He reaches out, snatching at the warm body next to him. "Morning, Tarik." Tarik lets out a muffled happy sound, burying his face in Garviel's chest. "G'morning, sweetheart." It feels good, a muffled sort of good. Happy and sleepy and warm, like Garviel could sink into the moment as if it were a bath. He wants to stay there forever, curled up in Tarik's arms, ther skin sticky with sweat and the sunshine pouring over them. They will be called to duty soon, they know, but that seems the farthest thing from either of their minds. Tarik isn't even fully awake yet, sleepily running his hands over Garviel, gentle and exploratory.

Garviel twines his fingers through Tarik's hair, pulling him into a kiss. "Come on. Wake up. We haven't got that much time."

"Time to snuggle." Tarik mutters against his lips. "Aways time to snuggle." Loken laughs, vibrations running through his chest and up into Tarik's head. "I promised I'd see Mersadie first thing, don't you remember? You were there when I said it!" Tarik laughs louder, confident. "She won't be awake yet. Euphrati kept her up half the night, and gave her plenty too much wine, besides."

The scene twists around Garviel, thick and hot like honey. Water laps around his waist, cold chilling his overheated flesh deliciously. The rocks under his feet are sharp, a deterrent to the mortals of the planet, and that affords the couple some privacy. The sunlight hangs like curtains of white silk, and Garviel doesn't know what is more beautiful, the crystal-glass clear-green sparkle of the water lapping at the white quartz, or Tarik, gloriously naked and splashing deeper into the pool. Garviel reaches out to stroke his lover's chest, pinching a nipple and then darting away before Tarik can retaliate. It's close to perfect, but everything feels distant, unreal, like an old memory.

Outside of the haze of dreams, Tarik has fallen half-asleep against the Dreadnought's outer casing. Garviel's face swims behind his eyes in a memory sharpened by the etching of love.The metal feels aching-cold against him, and he wishes he had bought a blanket, but that won't stop Tarik from sleeping in the Dreadnought's chamber. No-one will come looking for him, he knows that. They don't seem to see him anymore. Like a ghost, he thinks. He'd walked straight by one of his new younger brothers on the way down, and they hadn't even looked up. It wasn't right. This wasn't how Astartes should live. There should be laughter, and friendship, and there should be _love._ He shudders, fingers clawing subconsciously at the metal against which he rests. "Can you hear me? I love you, Garvi. I do." And he will say it again, next time Loken is woken for the sake of the Chapter. Tarik will tell him for the thousandth upon thousandth of time that he loves him. And Garvi will smile, deep inside the metal monster's chassis. He will look down at Tarik with warmth in his eyes, and he will say it back. _I love you too, darling._

 


End file.
